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Oddsson Criticizes Successor in Controversial Speech

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Oddsson Criticizes Successor in Controversial Speech

March 30, 2009 11:55Updated: January 30, 2014 20:16

Former governor and chairman of the Central Bank Davíd Oddsson gave a thundering speech at the national convention of the Independence Party on Saturday, in which he criticized his successor Svein Harald Oeygard.

Davíd Oddsson speaking at an Independence Party convention while he was still chairman of the party. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.

Oddsson said Oeygard was either a liar or suffering from Alzheimer’s because, at Oeygard's first press conference as governor of the Central Bank of Iceland, he said he couldn’t remember when he was first approached about the position, visir.is reports.

Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon told Fréttabladid that he does not worry that Oddsson’s comments will harm the reputation of the Central Bank or Oeygard himself, “Such comments judge themselves.”

Oddsson compared his eviction from the Central Bank with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Stöd 2 reports.

“When those bastards crucified the kind-hearted Christ, they crucified two criminals on either side of him. However, when the idle minority government hung the crook Davíd, they also decided to hang two honest and honorable men to accompany him, the man who they thought they had to punish,” Oddsson said, referring to his former colleagues, Central Bank governors Eiríkur Gudnason and Ingimundur Fridriksson, who were also forced out of their positions.

Then he criticized the Independence Party for its self-critical report, in which it sought to analyze its mistakes in the course of the events leading up to the collapse of the banking system, RÚV radio reports.

Oddsson deemed the report worth less than the paper it was written on, saying that he regretted the trees that had been cut down and processed for the paper used to print so many copies of the report.

“It was an interesting experience watching people applaud for this speech for a half an hour,” Sigfússon told Fréttabladid. He had watched the speech online. “The jokes weren’t funny.”

Click here to read more about the party’s national convention and here to watch Oddsson’s speech on visir.is.